Is France Ready to Elect a Woman? This Woman Thinks So, and Many Polls Agree

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

Published: April 7, 2006

Can this woman save France?

Can S?l? Royal, the politician with the elegant profile and stratospheric poll ratings, lead the Socialists to victory in next year's presidential election?

In the confusion that has gripped France in recent months, with immigrant youth riots followed by huge protests turned violent, Ms. Royal, 52, is the only politician who looks good.

On Thursday, she graced the cover of four French magazines. ''The Mystery Royal,'' announced Le Point, while Le Nouvel Observateur explored ''What Is in Her Head?'' VSD, which covers entertainment and news, asked, ''President S?l?: Is She Ready?''

''For the first time, the French say they are ready to vote for a woman; this is a historic event,'' she told Paris Match in its cover story that proclaimed, ''The Irresistible Ascension.''

The media's interest is not accidental. Voters are disillusioned with President Jacques Chirac, who has held office since 1995, and less than enthusiastic about the gray-haired white men who have long run the opposition Socialist Party.

With the government in disarray over protests against a youth jobs law and the Socialists doing little more than scoring points, Ms. Royal -- a member of Parliament, regional president and former minister -- has moved quickly to fill the vacuum.

She is the most popular potential Socialist presidential candidate by far in poll after poll. She even edged past Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the front-runner on the right, in a hypothetical runoff for the presidency in two recent polls.

She calls the jobs law, intended to encourage employers to hire young workers by making it easier to fire them, ''a scandal'' and ''a form of violence.'' Asked in an interview late last month what she would do differently if she were in Mr. Chirac's shoes, she exclaimed: ''I would be intelligent! Between the revolt in the suburbs last fall and the youth in the streets today, what a beautiful image of France we are giving to the world!''

Projecting a beautiful image is something that Ms. Royal does well. In addition to the magazine covers, she was the featured guest on TF1's television news program on Thursday. The first chapter of ''Desires for the Future,'' her new online book intended to open a dialogue with the French people, appeared Thursday on her new Web site.

Ms. Royal also has helped cement her political standing at home by making a name for herself abroad. ''I am globalizing myself,'' she said, laughing, about her interviews with foreign journalists in recent months. She annoyed the Socialist Party's old guard when she skipped the memorial for the 10th anniversary of the death of President Fran?s Mitterrand in January, jetting off to Chile instead, where she seized headlines by campaigning with the Socialist presidential candidate, Michelle Bachelet, who won.

A longtime admirer of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, Ms. Royal said she tentatively planned to appear with Mrs. Clinton at a conference in Washington in June.

Ms. Royal's domestic political strategy has been to carve out home-and-hearth issues that she promotes from her home base of Poitiers, where she presides over the Poitou-Charentes region of western France: saving the environment, improving schools, promoting opportunities for women, helping the disabled.

In late March, one of the items on the council's agenda was how to combat bad publicity about the bird flu virus in France. She announced a regionwide picnic featuring chicken, ''to eradicate fear.'' And not only chicken. ''Guinea fowl! Duck! Pigeon! Quail!'' she said.

A fierce party infighter with a sharp tongue, she is not universally loved back home, especially by the men. ''She is a pretty woman who tries to project a modern and open image,'' said Dominique Cl?nt, the center-right mayor of the town of Saint Benoit. ''But it's all an act. The packaging is beautiful. The marketing is slick. But the bottle is empty.''

Ms. Royal seems to have little patience with open-ended debate in her council. When Henri de Richemont, a center-right council member and a lawyer, interrupted one time too many during the recent session, she lost her smile, crossed her arms and cut him off. ''Very well, thank you for your intervention,'' she said curtly. ''Anyone else?''

''She is the queen -- who listens to no one and decides by herself,'' Mr. de Richemont said afterward.

But criticism can backfire. As soon as she said last September that she might run in the May 2007 presidential election, she rose sharply in the polls, even though some of her party brothers dismissed her declaration as outlandish.

''Who will look after the children?'' Laurent Fabius, the former prime minister, joked. Another prominent Socialist, Jack Lang, declared, ''The presidential race is not a beauty contest.''

Since then, Ms. Royal has asserted her right to run. ''I was attacked violently -- by men,'' she said. ''They said, 'She's a passing fad.' 'She's the cherry on the cake.' 'This shows that politics is zero.' 'She has nothing to say.' 'She's not tough enough.' All this criticism feeds my popularity. Besides, the politicians who attacked me were unpopular themselves.''

Asked whether she considered herself arrogant, she replied: ''Oh, no, surely not. Authoritarian. There is a demand for authority. I do not cultivate authority for pleasure.''

Even the first lady, Bernadette Chirac, has rallied around her. ''She can be a serious candidate and can even win,'' Mrs. Chirac said in February. ''She has a look.''

The strategy of leaders on the right has been to welcome Ms. Royal onto the battlefield, perhaps because they do not believe she poses a threat. Mr. Sarkozy has said she would be a ''respectable opponent.'' Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has said he and Ms. Royal have gotten along ''very well'' since their days as classmates at the elite ?ole Nationale d'Administration.

Despite her enshrinement by the news media, French voters are not used to new faces: Mr. Chirac and his predecessor, Mr. Mitterrand, reached the presidency after several tries.

It is by no means even sure that she will win the party's nomination when it chooses a candidate in November. Others seek the nomination, including, awkwardly, Francois Hollande, Ms. Royal's partner of 25 years who also happens to be the leader of the Socialist Party and with whom she has four children.

''If I am the best-placed to win, I will be ready,'' she said.

That they never married has not hurt either of them politically, and she has said that she and Mr. Hollande will decide together which one of them will try to run. Still, she struggles to maintain her independence, saying in the interview, ''We are not a couple.''

Her detractors fault her for a lack of experience in economic and national security matters. (She has led three second-tier ministries: Environment, School Education and Family and Childhood.) With the spotlight now on her, her views are being closely examined, and like other Socialists she has yet to say what she would do about unemployment, the burden of France's generous social welfare system or the country's fear of globalization. But when asked whether her lack of experience and her narrow base of issues were liabilities, she said, ''Men who pretend to be experts in everything, aren't telling the truth.''

Photos: Ségolène Royal, legislator and regional president, is seen in France as an alternative to the aging white men running the country.; Ségolène Royal's home base is Poitiers, where she leads the Poitou-Charentes regional council, above. (Photo by Ed Alcock for The New York Times)